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The purpose of patent law was not (originally) to ensure "free" access to inventions, but rather to make the knowledge public in the first place. It came about originally because skilled craftsmen were dying and taking their "trade secrets" to the grave with them. Patent law was introduced to encourage people who invented something to make it public - the key point about patent law is that you have to fully and publically disclose your entire "secret" as a part of the process. That allows anyone to access the information.
So it's not so much whether "free" access to Dickens and Shakespeare is beneficial - it's more a case of is it better to have them publish than keep all their work "secret" and have nobody else ever see it?
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